News

"To an untrained eye, the fields of Iowa have a reassuring solidity. You
cannot tell that the state has lost half its topsoil in the past
century. According to a new report from the Environmental Working Group,
Iowa’s soil is washing away at rates far higher than anyone realized.  For Iowa — and other Corn Belt states facing similar problems — this
means an increasing loss of fertility that has to be replaced
chemically. It marks a failure of stewardship, since these soils will
have to feed future generations. And every particle that washes away
causes problems downstream, including sedimentation — which can increase
the risk of flooding — and the alarming dead zone in the Gulf of
Mexico, the result of runoff of the chemical fertilizers farmers apply
to make up for lost fertility....Meanwhile, the race to profit from high crop prices — especially corn
for ethanol — and the sobering jump in the cost of rented land in Iowa
means that there is an intense push to create greater yield on more
acreage and less incentive than ever to practice sound soil
conservation.  This is all the more tragic because the techniques for conserving soil
are well understood. It requires planting buffer zones between fields
and rivers and contour strips on sloping fields and planting regimes
that keep crop cover on the soil by rotating between 3 and 4 crops, not
just soybeans and corn. It also requires comprehensive conservation
regulations and enforcement and, above all, facing the fact that erosion
is not nature or bad farmers at work. It is the legacy of bad
agricultural policy."